


i like the way you look at me

by jinhoes



Category: SF9 (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, M/M, dawon is Bad at Time Management
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 03:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinhoes/pseuds/jinhoes
Summary: It’s three days until Christmas, and Lee Sanghyuk hasn’t even begun Christmas shopping yet. Luckily for him, he has Youngbin.





	i like the way you look at me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spicyboyfriend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spicyboyfriend/gifts).



> hellO im sorry this work is both short and low quality but!! i hope you enjoy it anyway ilusm merry christmas!

Sanghyuk stepped into the coffee shop and bakery, soaking wet and with no umbrella. He stood there in the entrance for a moment, dragging his hand through his hair and shaking water droplets onto the floor. The shop was mostly empty, minus a few students sitting at chairs with laptops and notebooks open, and the few employees standing behind the counter.

He squinted at each one, his vision blurred due to the fact that he wasn’t wearing his glasses that day- but no, it seemed his initial once over observations were correct. He didn’t see the person he was searching for anywhere. He pursed his lips, rubbing the soles of his shoes against the carpet to remove water, and stepped forward.

“Where’s-” he started, but Inseong didn’t even look up to answer him.

“He’s in the back room, he should be back in a few minutes.” Inseong turned his gaze upward, looking Sanghyuk over. “Well, don’t you look handsome.”

“I know,” said Sanghyuk, shaking his hair in a manner that assured Inseong would be hit with a light spray. The older grimaced, taking a step back. “I always try to look my best when I come to see you, Inseongie-hyung.”

Inseong rolled his eyes, but a light smile touched the edges of his lips. “Back away from taken men, Sanghyuk.”

“I have my own taken man,” Sanghyuk pointed out. As if on cue, the door into the back room opened, and a familiar man entered into Sanghyuk’s vision. He smiled, leaning against the counter exaggeratedly. “Speak of the devil.”

“Hey!” Youngbin greeted. He had seemed tired when he’d opened the door, but at the sight of Sanghyuk, his mood perked up. His black apron had dark patches over it, and his hair was a little out of place, but otherwise he looked no worse for wear. Sanghyuk thought he looked cute.

He noticed the hurried nature with which Inseong left them be, and almost laughed.

“What are you doing here?” Youngbin questioned, leaning over the counter to speak to Sanghyuk more clearly. “I thought you’d still be asleep.”

“I need a favor,” Sanghyuk admitted. At Youngbin’s confused expression, he did a quick glance around the room and then lowered his tone, as though he was keeping some huge secret. “I’m going Christmas shopping and I… need help.”

Youngbin blinked, staring at Sanghyuk as though he didn’t quite comprehend him. “Christmas… shopping?”

Sanghyuk fell back onto his heels and crossed his arms. “Isn’t that what people do around Christmastime?”

Youngbin furrowed his brow, clearly hesitating. “Well, yeah, but… Sanghyuk, Christmas is in three days.”

Sanghyuk knew he should probably feel sheepish, or embarrassed. He could tell that Youngbin was disappointed in him, and that alone was enough to make most people feel the same amount of shame that came along with being scolded by their father. What he said, however, was, “Better late than never.”

Youngbin sighed, pressing his hands against the counter. “I… I guess so.” At Sanghyuk’s large grin, he laughed. “I get out of work in four hours. You can pick me up from my place an hour after that, and we’ll go.” He looked Sanghyuk over, and furrowed his brow. “You’re soaked- did you walk here?”

“It’s only a five minute walk,” Sanghyuk insisted, amused by the way that Youngbin looked torn between concerned and done. “Besides, I was going to come see you anyway. Good day so far?”

Youngbin shrugged, pushing himself to stand more upright. “It’s been slow the last couple hours. Inseong managed to walk into me and spill a full iced coffee on me.”

“Did he apologize?” Sanghyuk asked, looking Youngbin over. Well, that explained the stains and marks, at least.

Youngbin snorted. “Of course he did, but he made me make the new one.” He shrugged again, seemingly not upset. “It was funny. It really hasn’t been a bad day.” He paused, his eyes going to examine Sanghyuk’s face- a motion which, in turn, made Sanghyuk feel like all of his physical flaws were being highlighted under a magnifying glass. But Youngbin just seemed fond, pleased. “But thank you for coming.”

“Of course,” Sanghyuk said, once he’d gathered himself. The door behind him chimed, signaling a new customer, and Sanghyuk grimaced with the knowledge that he’d have to leave and let Youngbin deal with whoever it was. He reached his hand to his mouth and blew a kiss to Youngbin, something that made Youngbin’s face redden and caused a large smile to form on his face. “See you at five.”

“See you then,” Youngbin said, still smiling even as he turned to face the customer.

“Where’s my kiss?” Inseong questioned, as Sanghyuk made his way to the side and prepared to exit into the rain once more.

“Ask Jaeyoon to come in, that’s not my job,” Sanghyuk teased. Inseong shook his head in mock disappointment, lowering his gaze back down to the counter that he was scrubbing clean. “When was the last time that he came to visit you at work, anyway?”

“Jaeyoon works when I work,” Inseong said patiently, as though he’d said this several times already. Sanghyuk hadn’t heard this before, so he didn’t know who he would have been explaining this to. “He doesn’t have time to come visit me.”

“I’ll make him,” Sanghyuk promised. Inseong’s eyes met his. “That can be my Christmas present for you.”

“You’re just saying that because it’s the day before Christmas Eve and you still haven’t bought any presents.” Inseong grinned when Sanghyuk spluttered. “You’re the worst at time management, you know that?”

“I don’t think Chanhee has even left his dorm in weeks,” Sanghyuk said. “I’m doing better than him.”

“He online shops,” Inseong said dismissively. “So, no, even he is doing better than you.”

Sanghyuk huffed, puffing out his chest. “I’m going to get the best presents tonight. It doesn’t matter that I’m late. My presents are going to be better than anyone else’s combined.”

“I’ll be sure to thank Youngbin,” Inseong quipped, and laughed when Sanghyuk turned away, ignoring him. He didn’t need that negativity when he was on a mission. “Good luck.”

“Thanks, asshole,” said Sanghyuk, pushing his hands in his pockets and stepping out into the rainy streets.

\---

Youngbin slid into the passenger seat, hair still damp from a shower and seemingly much more relaxed than he had been in his working environment. Sanghyuk reached his hand over and dropped it on Youngbin’s knee, and Youngbin set his hand on top of that. They grinned at each other stupidly.

“Hey,” Youngbin greeted, leaning over and kissing Sanghyuk lightly. “Where are we going first?”

Sanghyuk hummed, leaning back in the seat of his car. “I… do you have any ideas?”

Youngbin sat back too, and snorted. “You haven’t thought about what you want to do tonight at all, have you?”

“I have!” Sanghyuk said defensively, pulling his phone out from his pocket and pushing it towards Youngbin, open to the notes section. “See! I thought about it for, like, an hour.”

Youngbin scanned through the notes, and then eyed Sanghyuk warily. “For Taeyang- something yellow, or annoyingly bright.”

“It fits him,” Sanghyuk insisted.

“For Seokwoo- makeup.” Youngbin raised an eyebrow. “What kind of makeup?”

“The good kind.”

Youngbin snorted, some amount of amusement taking over his expression. “For Juho- something pink, but manly. For Youngkyun, something to kick. For Youngbin-”

Sanghyuk hastily pulled his phone from Youngbin’s hands, and shut it off. “You can’t read that one.”

Youngbin looked like he wanted to say something sarcastic, but managed to bite his tongue. Sanghyuk found himself disappointed by the inaction. Youngbin was too nice, it was always interesting when he decided to actually talk shit, even if it was to Sanghyuk’s face.

“Alright,” Youngbin said instead, clearing his throat and turning to face forward in his seat. “That doesn’t answer the question, though. Where to first?”

Sanghyuk tilted his neck side to side, feeling the joints pop with each movement. “The store down the road?” he asked rather than stated. When Youngbin continued to stare at him, he squared his shoulders. “The store down the road.”

Youngbin shook his head, but there was a definite mix of laughter in his voice when he said, “Well, you’re the driver.”

“I am,” Sanghyuk agreed, patting Youngbin’s knee. He turned the keys in the ignition.

The store itself was a big supermarket, really. One end of it was produce, and the other a mixture of cheap clothing, electronics, children’s toys, home furniture, and etc.. Youngbin shivered as they entered, tugging his light jacket tighter to himself.

“They always turn the AC on too high in here,” he muttered, allowing himself to be led by Sanghyuk to… wherever they were going. “What are we here for?”

Sanghyuk grinned sheepishly. “... Anything.”

“Great,” said Youngbin simply, trailing behind Sanghyuk with his hands in his pockets. “Tell me when you see… anything.”

“Ahhh,” Sanghyuk whined, grabbing Youngbin by the shoulders. “But you’re good at gifts, and I’m not.”

“I already did all my shopping,” Youngbin pointed out, but softened at the desparate look on Sanghyuk’s face.

“You’re the caring boyfriend who actually pays attention to the wants and dreams of our friends,” Sanghyuk said, lightly shaking Youngbin’s shoulders for emphasis. “I need you. Please?”

Youngbin stared at Sanghyuk’s face for a few moments, even though they both knew full well what he was going to do. Finally, he groaned and shook Sanghyuk’s hands from his shoulders. “Fine, just- don’t do this again, please?”

“Never again,” Sanghyuk promised, smiling as he wrapped Youngbin in a tight hug that Youngbin sank into reluctantly, like the very action was a favor. “So! What are your ideas?”

“Do you read what goes on in the groupchat when you’re not actively participating?” Youngbin questioned. Taking Sanghyuk’s silence as an answer, he shook his head fondly, and pulled out his phone. “Some of them send gift ideas, like, every few days. What kind of budget are we working on anyway?”

“If I spend more than twenty dollars on each of them you’re going to have to pay for my dinner on every date,” Sanghyuk said solemnly.

Youngbin nodded slowly. “I- okay. Walk, I’ll tell you where we need to go.”

They weaved down the aisles, Sanghyuk scanning the shelves while Youngbin skimmed the group chat, inwardly cursing the way that Sanghyuk, Jaeyoon, and Inseong seemed to never stop talking in it- except where it counted, apparently. Finally, he managed to come across something.

“Seokwoo mentioned a couple days ago that he wants a humidifier,” Youngbin read off, turning his gaze upwards to his boyfriend, who was occupying himself with pressing his nose to the nose of a stuffed puppy toy. He fought the urge to smile and failed, an expression that made Sanghyuk grin broadly.

“How much are humidifiers?” Sanghyuk asked, setting the dog back on the shelf with reluctance heavy and visible in his movements.

The humidifiers that they could find were all above twenty dollars, but they ended up placing one in their cart, anyway. “We can get someone something cheaper,” said Sanghyuk, to which Youngbin laughed, despite his own feelings of admonishment.

“What do you think Taeyang would like for Christmas?” Youngbin asked a few minutes later, while they completely wasted their time and traveled through the baby’s clothes section of the store.

“World peace, probably,” Sanghyuk said, fiddling with a bib that said I love Daddy on it. Youngbin stared at him, and he slowly put it back on the rack.

“What reasonable thing do you think Taeyang would like for Christmas?” Youngbin corrected himself, resuming his scanning through the group chat. “He never sends anything in here.”

“What did you get him?” Sanghyuk asked curiously, falling back to walk next to Youngbin, who shrugged. His hair, now dry from his earlier shower, had clearly not been brushed by the way that it fell in his face and stuck out in the back. Sanghyuk’s fingers twitched to fix it.

“I got him a pillow,” said Youngbin, apparently unaware of Sanghyuk’s struggles. “He complained about the one he has to me and Chanhee a few weeks ago, so it was easy enough. I don’t know what else he might need, though.”

“It’s not about needing,” Sanghyuk pointed out, reaching and taking the cart from Youngbin, who handed it over without a fight.

They managed to find a gift for Taeyang (a pack of three guitar picks, since the kid always seemed to be losing them- Youngbin was actually kind of impressed Sanghyuk had thought of it). They also found gifts for Inseong and Chanhee, a book with challenge puzzles like sudoku and crosswords, and a two pretty drawing books with colorful covers, respectively.

Once they’d finished their lap around the store and had somehow managed to be there an hour and a half in the process, Youngbin’s stomach made an audible growling sound that made him flush with embarrassment.

“Oh, shit,” Sanghyuk said, stopping in his tracks. “Have you ate today?” What kind of boyfriend was he, just assuming that Youngbin would have ate before he’d picked him up-

“It’s fine,” Youngbin assured, squeezing Sanghyuk’s elbow in assurance. “We can get takeout on the way back to my place or something.”

Sanghyuk eyed Youngbin and then shook his head, throwing his arm over Youngbin’s shoulders. “Fine. Your choice. I’ll pay.”

“At this rate, are you going to have money to pay?” Youngbin pointed out, gesturing to their basket of gifts that also included a tub of ice cream and a bottle of cola, on account of them getting hung up on how good coke floats were. Sanghyuk shrugged, unconcerned.

“It’ll be fine. Hey, can you go back to electronics and tell me if they have any good headphones for cheap?”

He saw Youngbin’s glance at him, but Youngbin said that he would anyway. And when he came back and saw Sanghyuk with a basket and a new, suspicious but purchased bag in his hands, Youngbin didn’t have to ask.

The headphones were for Youngkyun, a comfortable set that seemed quality enough to be under twenty dollars. Inspired by the slowly thawing ice cream in their cart, they hurried through the next few presents (Why do I have so many friends, Sanghyuk had bemoaned, eliciting a light laugh from Youngbin). Sanghyuk found a movie in the new releases that he recognized the title of, only from Jaeyoon talking his ear off about it just a month ago and about how he had to see it (he hadn’t seen it).

Juho was reasonably difficult, even in comparison to everyone else. Sanghyuk found himself continuously blanking on any idea of what to get him, especially with the time dwindling in the form of a case of vanilla ice cream.

Finally, he spotted something on a shelf and laughed outloud, pulling it off and gesturing to Youngbin with it. Youngbin stopped, blinking at the object until his eyes focused and could read the identifying words on it.

“No,” he breathed, more amused than actually protesting, even as Sanghyuk tossed the item into the cart. A disposable camera, with pink unicorns and cartoonish shooting stars designed all along with plastic of it.

“Yes!” Sanghyuk exclaimed, full of joy, and pushed the cart, at last, in the direction of the cash registers. Youngbin rolled his eyes, unable to hide his own humor as he followed.

They finally left the store and stepped into the darkness outside, where night had fallen at some point in between scanning the shelves and counting Sanghyuk’s cash. Armed with takeout, cola, and melting vanilla ice cream, they made their way into Youngbin’s apartment and fell onto the couch together.

“Thank you,” Sanghyuk said later, contentedly combing through Youngbin’s hair at last, after seeing it tangled for the last few hours. “For helping me pick presents.”

“One of us needs to be good at that,” Youngbin hummed teasingly, head resting in Sanghyuk’s lap. He patted Sanghyuk’s cheek. “No problem, though. Just don’t wait so long next time.”

“Remind me not to,” said Sanghyuk, grinning when the pat turned into a pinch.

\---

The first photo on Juho’s new camera was a photo of Sanghyuk, with a ridiculously large lion hat on his head, smiling as Youngbin lifted a mug out of a box that had the colorfully printed word Bitch on the side, written in glitter. The next photo showed Youngbin tucking Sanghyuk into a headlock even as they both laughed.

“He promised he’d get us the best gifts ever,” Inseong hummed in mock disappointment as he watched them mess around, with Jaeyoon’s chin resting on his shoulder.

“It’s a step up from last year,” Jaeyoon pointed out. “He gave Taeyang a tissue box because he had a cold the end of November.”

“I guess,” Inseong said, leaning back against Jaeyoon. Chanhee and Youngkyun were getting pushed away by Youngbin, both of them chanting “Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!”

“Hey,” Jaeyoon added, tapping his fingers against the side of Inseong’s arm, as though he thought that he didn’t had Inseong’s full attention. “Sanghyuk told me you want me to come visit you at work more.”

Inseong paused, thinking through his response. “I wouldn’t mind that,” he said, and could practically hear Jaeyoon look up the the ceiling in irritation. Jaeyoon hugged his arms around Inseong’s sides, the motion something with meaning. An apology, maybe.

“Then I will,” he said. “I’ll come on my lunch breaks. I just thought that maybe you didn’t want me to, since I’d be a distraction.”

Inseong snorted, knocking his head against Jaeyoon’s. “You’re a good distraction,” he promised, as Sanghyuk forced his lion hat onto a loudly protesting Juho. He took it back. Maybe Sanghyuk wasn’t such a bad gift giver after all.

He glanced at Juho’s abandoned unicorn camera, and laughed to himself. Nevermind.


End file.
